Digital television is an emerging technology which is becoming increasingly popular with the public. One of the more interesting aspects is the introduction of so-called “high-definition television” (HDTV), the broadcasting of which was recently approved by the United States Federal Communications Commission. HDTV will provide television images of much higher quality and definition than is provided by preexisting “conventional definition” television systems.
Another highly important aspect of digital television is the providing of related services, such as video-on-demand programming, pay-per-view movies and sporting events, interactive video games, home shopping capabilities, high-speed Internet access and the like. The home television set is fast becoming the predominate information and services dispensing medium of the future.
As is known, television services are presently communicated by land-based radio-type broadcast transmissions, cable network transmissions and space satellite transmissions. In order to limit reception to paid subscribers, it is common practice for cable and satellite providers to scramble their transmissions and to require their customers to use a special set-top control box to unscramble the received signals. Such scrambling and set-top box techniques are also desired by providers of related services. The problem to date is that each provider has developed its own unique and proprietary set-top control box. Thus, to receive and use signals from multiple providers requires the use of multiple set-top control boxes. This is not the best situation and, in order to overcome the problem, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission is encouraging a so-called “open” receiver approach for providing a universal set-top box capable of receiving and handling content from multiple providers. Unfortunately, this is not an easy thing to do and at the same time provide the security control features needed to protect the various service providers from loss of services to unauthorized users.